A Brief History of Black Nationalism and RBG's Current Academic Contributions

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLACK NATIONALISM AND
RBG’s CURRENT ACADEMIC CONTRIBUTIONS
Compiled and designed by RBGStreetScholar
(Marc Imhotep Cray, M.D.)
The Official Black History Mixtapes 2010 Press
Booklet
Black nationalism (BN) advocates a racial definition (or redefinition) of black national identity, as
opposed to multiculturalism. There are different black nationalist philosophies but the principles
of all black nationalist ideologies are
1) black unity, and
2) black self-determination/political, social and economic independence from White society.
Martin Delany is considered to be the grandfather of black nationalism.
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RBG=BLACK NATIONALISM
Inspired by the apparent success of the Haitian Revolution, the origins of black nationalism in
political thought lie in the 19th century with people like Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad,
Henry McNeal Turner, Martin Delany, David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, Edward
Wilmot Blyden,Paul Cuffe, etc.
The repatriation of black American slaves to Liberia or Sierra Leone was a common black
nationalist theme in the 19th century. Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement
Association of the 1910s and 1920s was the most powerful black nationalist movement to
date, claiming 11 million members. Although the future of Africa is seen as being central to
black nationalist ambitions, some adherents to black nationalism are intent on the eventual
creation of a separate black American nation in the U.S. or Western hemisphere.
According to Wilson Jeremiah Moses in his famous work Classical Black
Nationalism, black nationalism as a philosophy can be examined from three
different periods giving rise to various ideological perspectives for what we can
today consider what black nationalism really is.
The first being pre-Classical black nationalism beginning from the time the
Africans were brought ashore in the Americas to the Revolutionary period.
After the Revolutionary War, a sizable number of Africans in the colonies,
particularly in New England and Pennsylvania, were literate and had become
disgusted with their social conditions that had spawned from Enlightenment ideas. We find in
such historical personalities as Prince Hall, Richard Allen, and Absalom Jones a need to
found certain organizations as the Free African Society, African Masonic lodges and
Church Institutions. These institutions would serve as early foundations to developing
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independent and separate organizations. By the time of Post-Reconstruction Era a new form of
black nationalism was emerging among various African-American clergy circles. Separate
circles had already been established and were accepted by African-Americans because of the
overt oppression that had been in existence since the inception of the United States. This
phenomenon led to the birth of modern black nationalism which stressed the need to separate
and build separate communities that promote strong racial pride and also to collectivize
resources. This ideology had become the philosophy of groups like the Moorish Science Temple
and the Nation of Islam. Although, the Sixties brought on a heightened period of religious,
cultural and political nationalism, black nationalism would later influence afrocentricity .
Background
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey encouraged black people around the world to be proud of
their race and to see beauty in their own kind. A central idea to Garveyism
was that black people in every part of the world were one people and they
would never advance if they did not put aside their cultural and ethnic
differences and unite. Black people, Garvey felt, should love and take care of
other black people.
The principles of Garveyism are race first, self-reliance and nationhood. Race first is the idea
that black people should support other black people first and foremost, self-reliance is the idea
that black people should be politically and economically self-reliant (it was important to Garvey
that black people develop businesses owned and operated by black people and that they
patronize these businesses) and nationhood is the idea that black people should create a
United States of Africa which would safeguard the interests of black people worldwide.
To disseminate the UNIA's program, Garvey founded the Negro World newspaper and to
encourage black economic independence, he founded the Black Star Line in 1919 as well as
the Negro Factories Corporation. The UNIA also initiated the Universal African Legion, a
paramilitary group, the Black Cross Nurses, the African Black Cross Society and the Black
Cross Trading and Navigation Corporation. Garvey attracted millions of supporters and claimed
eleven million members for the UNIA. Marcus Garvey, however, did not advocate that all black
people should leave the United States to emigrate to Africa (a strong United States of Africa
would protect the interests of all black people everywhere in the world so a physical migration of
all black people in the West was unnecessary and, in some cases, undesirable).
Although Marcus Garvey was an ardent supporter of racial separatism (he encouraged black
people to separate themselves from whites residentially, develop their own all black businesses
and schools, and preached against inter-racial marriage as 'race suicide'), he made it clear that
he held no hostility towards whites and believed in the equality of all human beings. Garvey set
the precedent for subsequent black nationalist and pan-Africanist thought including that of
Kwame Nkrumah (and several other African leaders) the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X and most
notably, Carlos Cooks (who is considered the ideological son of Marcus Garvey) and his African
Nationalist Pioneer Movement.
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Marcus Garvey's beliefs are articulated in The Philosophy and Opinions of
Marcus Garvey as well as
Message To The People: The Course of African Philosophy
Malcolm X
Between 1953 and 1965, while most black leaders worked in the civil rights
movement integrate black people into mainstream American life, Malcolm X
preached independence. He maintained that Western culture, and the Judeo-
Christian religious traditions on which it is based, was inherently racist. Constantly
ridiculing mainstream civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X
declared that nonviolence was the "philosophy of the fool". In response to
Reverend King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, Malcolm X quipped, "While
King was having a dream, the rest of us Negroes are having a nightmare."
Malcolm X believed that black people must develop their own society and ethical values,
including the self-help, community-based enterprises that the black Muslims supported. He also
thought that African Americans should reject integration or cooperation with European
Americans until they could achieve cooperation among themselves. Malcolm called for a "black
revolution." He declared there "would be bloodshed" if the racism problem in America remained
ignored, and he renounced any sort of "compromise" with whites. After taking part in a Hajj
(pilgrimage to Mecca), he recanted extremist opinions in favor of mainstream Islam and ["true
brotherhood"], and was soon after assassinated during a speech held at The Audubon
Ballroom, NYC.
Upon his return from Mecca, Malcolm X abandoned his commitment to racial separatism;
however, he was still in favour of black nationalism and advocated that black people in the U.S.
be self-reliant. The beliefs of post-Mecca Malcolm X are articulated in the charter of his
Organization of Afro-American Unity (a black nationalist group patterned after the Organization
of African Unity).
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Frantz Fanon
While in France Frantz Fanon wrote his first book, Black Skin, White Mask, an
analysis of the impact of colonial subjugation on the black psyche. This book was
a very personal account of Fanon’s experience being black: as a man, an
intellectual, and a party to a French education. Although Fanon wrote the book
while still in France, most of his other work was written while in North Africa (in
particular Algeria). It was during this time that he produced his greatest works, A
Dying Colonialism and perhaps the most important work on decolonization yet
written, The Wretched of the Earth.. In it, Fanon lucidly analyzes the role of class,
race, national culture and violence in the struggle for national liberation. In this seminal work
Fanon expounded his views on the liberating role of violence for the colonized, as well as the
general necessity of violence in the anti-colonial struggle. Both books firmly established Fanon
in the eyes of much of the Third World as the leading anti-colonial thinker of the 20th century. In
1959 he compiled his essays on Algeria in a book called L'An Cinq: De la Révolution
Algérienne.
Black Power
Black Power was a political movement expressing a new racial consciousness
among black people in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Black
Power represented both a conclusion to the decade's civil rights movement
and an alternative means of combating the racism that persisted despite the
efforts of black activists during the early 1960s. The meaning of Black Power
was debated vigorously while the movement was in progress. To some it
represented African-Americans' insistence on racial dignity and self-reliance,
which was usually interpreted as economic and political independence, as
well as freedom from European American authority. These themes had been
advanced most forcefully in the early 1960s by Malcolm X. He argued that black people should
focus on improving their own communities, rather than striving for complete integration, and that
black people had a duty to retaliate against violent assaults. The publication of The
Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) created further support for the idea of African-American
self-determination and had a strong influence on the emerging leaders of the Black Power
movement. Other interpreters of Black Power emphasized the cultural heritage of black people,
especially the African roots of their identity. This view encouraged study and celebration of black
history and culture. In the late 1960s black college students requested curricula in African-
American studies that explored their distinctive culture and history. Still another view of black
Power called for a revolutionary political struggle to reject racism and economic exploitation in
the United States and abroad, as well as colonialism. This interpretation encouraged the
alliance of non-whites, including Hispanics and Asians, to improve the quality of their lives.
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Uhuru Movement
The Uhuru Movement is the largest contemporary black movement advocating
black nationalism and was founded in the 1980s in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Composed mainly of the African People's Socialist Party, the Uhuru Movement
also includes other organizations based in both Africa and the United States.
These organizations are in the process of establishing a broader organization called the African
Socialist International. "Uhuru" is the Swahili word for freedom.
The Republic of New Afrika (RNA)
A was a social movement organization that proposed three objectives.
First, the creation of an independent Black-majority country situated in the
southeastern region of the United States. The vision for this country was
first promulgated on March 31, 1968, at a Black Government Conference
held in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Proponents of this vision lay
claim to five Southern states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina)
and the Black-majority counties adjacent to this area in Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida. A
similar claim is made for all the Black-majority counties and cities throughout the United States.
Second, they demanded several billion dollars in reparations from the US government for the
damages inflicted on Black people by chattel enslavement, Jim Crow segregation, and
persistent modern-day forms of racism. Third, they demanded a referendum of all African
Americans in order to decide what should be done with their citizenry. Regarding the latter, it
was claimed that Black people were not given the choice to decide in regard to what they
wanted to do after emancipation.
History of the RNA
The Black Government Conference was convened by the Malcolm X Society
and the Group on Advanced Leadership (GOAL), two influential Detroit-based
organizations with broad followings. This weekend meeting produced a
Declaration of Independence (signed by 100 conferees out of approximately
500), a constitution, and the framework for a provisional government. Robert F.
Williams, a controversial human rights advocate then living in exile in China, was
chosen as the first President of the provisional government; attorney Milton
Henry was named First Vice President (a student of Malcolm X's teachings); and Betty
Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, served as Second Vice President.
The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PG-RNA) advocated/advocates a
form of cooperative economics through the building of New Communities—named after the
Ujamaa concept promoted by Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere; militant self-defense through
the building of local People's Militias and an aboveground standing army called the Black
Legion; and respect for international law through the building of organizations that champion the
right of self-determination for people of African descent.
During its existence, the organization was involved in numerous controversial issues. For
example, it attempted to assist Oceanhill-Brownsville in seceding from the United States during
the conflict that took place there. Additionally, it was involved with shootouts at New Bethel
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RBG’s CURRENT ACADEMIC
Baptist Church in 1969 (during the one-year anniversary of the
founding) and another in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1971 (where it CONTRIBUTION
RBG NETWORK FUNCTIONS WITHIN
had begun to start its occupation of the South on a single farm). THE CONTEXT OF OUR OVERALL
Within both events, law-enforcement officials were killed as well COMMUNIVERSITY AND ORGANIZING
as injured and harsh legal action was imposed against AND UNIFYING CHARGE.
organizational members. RBG WORLDWIDE 1 NATION IS
HISTORY , CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT,
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) believed the SOCIALIZATION AND
COMMUNICATIONS AND
Republic of New Afrika to be a seditious group and conducted INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
raids on its meetings, which led to violent confrontations, and the http://rbgnation.ning.com/
arrest and repeated imprisonment of RNA leaders noted above. UNLOCK THE KEY IS ADVANCED
The group was a target of the COINTELPRO operation by the POLITICAL EDUCATION AND
federal authorities but was also subject to diverse Red Squad ORGANIZATIONS MEMBERSHIP
activities of Michigan State Police and Detroit Police PORTAL
http://bangout.ning.com/
Department—among other cities.
SOUL PRESCRIPTIONS IS
There is a new era for "The Republic". It is the party of THE JAZZOLOGY AND HEALING POWER
BLACK PATRIOTS- a moderately conservative group of New OF MUSIC STUDIES, AS WELL AS
Africans that believe in demonstrating compassion and THE WRITINGS/TEACHINGS OF
prosperity for all people (most especially, NEW AFRICANS ELDER SCHOLAR AND REPORTER J R
STANTON
(former African-Americans). To form a more perfect union, the
http://soulprescriptions.ning.com/
Republic of New Africa is the foundation to create change
politically, economically, socially and culturally among the
ORGANIZATION OF NEW
descendants of slaves in America.
AFRIKAN UNITY IS A
MODERNIZED IMPLEMENTATION
The critical difference in "The Republic" is the collective effort to
OF MINISTER MALCOLM'S OAAU
strategically purchase land in centralized regions of the United AS WELL AS THE TEACHINGS OF
States of America. PAC/NEW AFRIKAN PANTHAZ
AND MARCUS GARVEY. AS WELL
AS OUR COMPREHENSIVE NEW
The time is ripe to heed the long-standing, and most often AFRIKAN IN AMERICA
overlooked, calls for Afrikan Unity, Cultural Development, HISTORICAL TOPICS LIBRARY
Education and Social Transformation. Such is what RBG most http://onau2x.ning.com/
fundamentally represents. Contrary to the prevailing,
misinformed assumptions, RBG (Black Nationalism / CEMOTAP-COMMITTEE TO
PanAfrikanism ) as an ideology, interaction and academic ELIMINATE MEDIA OFFENSIVE TO
process is not a rabid assertion of Black supremacy. Unlike AFRIKAN PEOPLE IS THE
white Nationalism and American patriotism, RBG (Black PSYCHOLOGY SOCIOLOGY AND
Nationalism / PanAfrikanism ) and its proponents do not seek to POLITICS OF MEDIA.
humiliate, exploit, or oppress any person or people. Rather, RBG http://cemotap.ning.com/
/ (Black Nationalism / PanAfrikanism ) is a positive affirmation of
the cultural, political, social, economic and moral identity and RBG STREET SCHOLARS
concerns of African people. In its most rudimentary forms, it THINK TANK FREE
reacts to the brutally violent and repressive conditions under INTERACTIVE PUBLICATIONS
which African people have and continue to live. White / TUTORIALS (160) FOR
supremacy / racism creates an environment where whites are BROWSING, STUDYING AND
necessarily viewed with suspicion, but we are not anti-white. We DOWNLOAD
are Afrikan/ Black on purpose and Black folks must first and http://www.scribd.com/document
_collections/2333990
foremost be beholden to each other. The most basic expression
of RBG (Black Nationalism/ PanAfrikanism ) thought is that
Black / Afrikan people in America and throughout the diaspora
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are bound by the common history and experience of historical chattel and present day mental
slavery, suffering and death under the boot heel of white supremacy / racism. Most importantly,
RBG is about self-reliance, self- respect and self-defense toward the total liberation and
unification of all Afrikan people that desire to defend, define and develop in our own image and
interest.
FURTHER STUDY OF OUR PROGRAM AND PLAN
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